Hello readers, and welcome to the another installment of our Proper People blog - our space to share our admiration for local businesses, people, makers, artists, or just someone that popped up in the local paper.
In today’s episode, and featured heavily across our Axis campaign films, we visit our friend Heidi Caunce-Berry at her in house studio, the Design Cottage in New Longton, Preston.
Heidi is a freelance illustrator who drew our attention (pun intended) with her technical-style sketches and fond memories of Lancashire’s manufacturing background.
ABOUT HEIDI
Heidi is a freelance artist and illustrator who works from Design Cottage, a little place in Lancashire that she’s been slowly renovating for the last ten years. She’s been drawing and designing since she was very young, and she’s worked in the industry ever since graduating with a first class honours degree, thirty-odd years ago. She’s never short of company while she does it. Her colleagues are a border collie, two cats, two rabbits and a few chickens, which makes for a busy studio and, we’d imagine, a few interesting video calls.
Her background is in technical drawing and furniture design, and it shows in everything she makes. Her illustrations have a distinctly technical look, built up in fineline pencil. She starts with a loose pencil sketch, then goes back in and adds the detail layer by layer, until the drawing has all the precision of a plan. Some pieces take days to finish. Heidi wouldn’t have it any other way, because the detail is the part she loves most.
Her furniture design days also left her with fond memories of Lancashire’s factories and manufacturing. If she needed a bespoke part for a design, she could pop down to a local workshop and get it made, often while having a good chat with the people who made it. That kind of working relationship is something she still misses.
These days, Preston is where much of her creative life is based. The area is full of creative businesses and creative people, with collaborations and groups all over the place. Preston and Lancashire have a big place in her heart, and what she loves most is the open honesty of the people here.
As Heidi puts it, she loves what she does, where she does it, and who she does it with. That’s the proper way to work, and exactly why she fit right into the Axis campaign.
AS SEEN IN THE AXIS CAMPAIGN
For those who may have missed it, the Axis campaign film follows a number of creatives as they tackle their daily tasks, showing that a solid pair of boots is all you need to carry you through.
When we started thinking about which local creatives to feature in the Axis campaign, Heidi was an easy call. She’s a familiar face, and connection to LANX goes back a lot further than the Axis campaign.
She’s originally from the Midlands, and in the 90s she made the move up to Lancashire to work at Allermuir, the furniture company founded by Vasco Vaghetti, father of LANX Founder, Marco. That’s where Heidi’s story first crosses paths with the Vaghetti family, and by extension, the LANX story.
Like the Proper People blog, the campaign was also a celebration of the creatives and artisans that make up the community in Lancashire, continuing what sometimes feels like a lost art in an ever-evolving world. Making things properly and taking pride in doing so is worth celebrating, and we know that Heidi shares the same mindset.
PROPER PEOPLE BLOG BY LANX
Our Proper People Blog is our feature to shine a spotlight on the fantastic businesses and amazing people that make up the community.
Heidi is a perfect fit for that criteria.